Friday, February 27, 2015

"Born and raised on a tiny thirteen-acre parcel in Nevada, Theo always loved comics and taught himself how to draw studying his favorite artists’ work. His credits include “Masked Men” and Phil Yea’s “Winged Tiger.” Tso has also served his community as a Tribal Council member, while raising his family. His character “Captain Paiute” will soon be a full-length comic series."

Twitter also states he's a "Native American comic book artist, and creator of Captain Paiute and owner of War Paint Studios."

Monday, February 23, 2015

Episode #5

This episode, Frank responds to an article on Comics Alliance by Chris Sims where the columnist devotes more time to thinking about the pros and cons of the Manhunter from Mars than most folks would ever spare. Sims felt the Alien Atlas compared unfavorably and unavoidably to Superman and Batman in the Justice League, and that he works best filling their vacuum in instances where the World's Finest duo are unavailable. Frank mostly agrees, but explains that there are a lot more venues available for that service within the DC Universe than might have been previously considered, including adopting orphaned concepts from prior periods of those heroes' library. Remember kids, just because you only know a character from team books doesn't mean that's all there is to know...

We enjoy dialogue on the red planet, so here are our non-telepathic contact options:

Friday, February 20, 2015

A lot of the Timmverse/Justice League Unlimited style Martian Manhunters I've seen have been pretty blatant swipes, so kudos to Smith for adopting a style that reflects the basic aesthetic without shamelessly retracing it, making the work his own. I also like the solid black cape and contrasting interplay with the lettering.

Friday, February 13, 2015

I tried to find one of these "Fiftieth Friday" anniversary pieces that would reflect posting on the eve of Valentine's Day, but nobody thought to include J'Onn's wife or any of his love interests. This one at least has a slight romantic fantasy quality to it, dark as it may be, and it is a Friday the Thirteenth as well. I feel confident that there's a color version of this piece somewhere, and I'm certain the reproduction quality in the SDCC con book was yucky. Unfortunately, while I found traces of the artist online, there was nothing substantial or definite.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Marty Salsman is clearly a Martian Manhunter fan, as his art has turned up on the blog before, a piece that he's since colored. Salsman even co-produced seven pages of a John Jones story, “Searching in the Dark,” linked below. Salsman was published in the SDCC convention book on J'onn J'onzz's 50th birthday, and he showed it off here, but I felt such an involved piece for such an auspicious occasion deserved a larger presentation. Note the cameo by Lil' Archie, who was also turning 50, so I'm not so sure the descriptive should have still applied.

"One of the truly unsung heroes of the DC universe, he's been around since 1955 predating the Silver-Age by just one year. I'm truly heartbroken DC has decided to kill off this character. On a brighter note the young writer and fellow deviantART member Dahila Mockery(give her a shout, she's done a great job) and myself have decided to pay tribute to this awesome DC hero! Set in the mid-1950's before he's even met any other super-heroes, he was a detective for the police and a private investigator par excellant. Page 1 of 15 of our story, I hope you like it. A colorized version will follow soon."

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Happy Birthday to Krypto, first published on January 27, 1955 in Adventure Comics #210! "The Superdog from Krypton" has yet to team up with Jupiter, the Dog with a Martian Master, but the artist's invention of "The Justice Pack" does include some sort of Wolfdog from Mars.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Superman's here? Shoot, is someone from the Revenge Squad about to turn J'Onn J'Onzz into a jobber again, or is this another round of unnecessary fighting between Man of Tomorrow and Manhunter from Mars with the new twist of wedding reception cake crushing? No, it's okay, these two are supposed to be friends, and Kal-El is probably in a ba(r)king mood in advance of his beloved Dog of Steel celebrating his 420th birthday (or in human years, Krypto turns 60 on January 27th.) In publication time, Krypto arrived about eight months ahead of the Sleuth from Outer Space, and was celebrated across 16 pages pf the same SDCC '05 convention book (including two text articles!) The dual birthdays weren't really noted in the book, though there was a modest connection drawn that I'll post next week. I'm not sure if J'Onn has ever hung out with Krypto, but M'gann M'orzz...

Friday, January 16, 2015

Robin Thompson is a Vancouver based independent comic artist and publisher whose offerings include the rough hewn Champions of Hell, but he's also produced all-ages fare. You can reach him via Facebook or buy his merch here

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Episode #3

Three episodes in, we finally cover the debut comics of J'Onn J'Onzz, the Manhunter from Mars. The Batman and Roy Raymond TV Detective stories from Detective Comics #225 are given brief nods before diving into a synopsis of "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel" (01:46). A rather overwrought analysis of this first story of Detective John Jones (05:54) precedes coverage of the second "half" of the origin, the run-of-the-mill mostly standalone tale "The Case of the Magic Baseball" (18:46). Finally, "Martian Morphing Mail" (21:10) has already morphed away from the previous episode's audio, and is a bit livelier this round. Coming in at a stout 31:24, look for the show to lean back up again now that the heavy lifting of our subject's introduction is out of the way (and hopefully less painful voice "acting.")

Friday, January 2, 2015

In 2005, the Manhunter from Mars celebrated his 50th anniversary as a comic book hero. DC Comics didn't acknowledge it in any way, shape, or form, although the storyline "Crisis of Conscience" did show J'Onn J'Onzz the permanent exit door on JLA membership for the first time since 1984. This blog didn't start up until 2007, and while we didn't specifically celebrate fifty-five, I think it was a good year for our output overall. Also, 2010 was the year J'Onn was resurrected in Blackest Night, so there's that.

With all the hubbub around the 75th anniversaries of Superman and Batman in 2013-2014, and the presumed dual celebration of the Flash & Green Lantern crossing that landmark this year, I want to do something special here. It's a safe bet DC will once again forget the Alien Atlas' 60th, even though his birthday is a lot more legit than their shoving Barry Allen and Hal Jordan into the spotlight.

I suspect 2015 will be my last year of routine blogging, and I want it to be the best possible, so I've been working on projects to do the anniversary up right since spring of last year. I was lucky enough to stumble upon the '05 SDCC convention program book at Comicpalooza for ten bucks, which devoted 17 full pages to art and a text article for the Sleuth from Outer Space's half-century mark. Hopefully he'll get something like similar treatment in this year's edition, but in the meantime, I've scanned all of the 2005 pieces for presentation on Fiftieth Friday for the next few months. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Episode #2

To permanently save this episode's MP3 file to your computer or other listening devices, right-click the link below to bring up sub-menu and select “Save Target/Link As...” Pick where you want it to save to, and you're set.

This week, we look at one of the primary villains of Martian Manhunter and the Justice League of America, Despero of Kalanor. Starting with a brief glimpse at the JLofA's earliest issues and foes, we progress to a synopsis of 1960's Justice League of America #1 (02:38,) Frank discussing his first exposure to and thoughts on the Silver Age Despero and his supporting players (06:41,) a synopsis of 1964's Justice League of America #26 (08:58,) further analysis on the character (11:46,) his current lack of a role in the films Justice League Parts 1 & 2 (14:17) and listener response on the first episode (17:07.)

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #10
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by NEIL EDWARDS and JAY LEISTEN
Cover by ANDREW ROBINSON
MOVIE POSTER Variant cover by MARCO D’ALFONSO
1:25 Variant cover by DAN HIPP
On sale MARCH 11 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. This issue is also offered as a combo pack edition with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue. Please see the order form for details.

“The Infinitus Saga” reaches its stunning conclusion! The combined might of the JLU, the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Rannian War Fleet and the Thanagarians learn the true meaning of sacrifice as events unfold that will change the DC Universe forever!

The "penultimate chapter" was solicited two months ago, so my question is, which issue(s) were padded out to take the story up through to the "Convergence" break?

Teenaged Diana comes to Man’s World and discovers a “Wonder World” where she makes new friends. That part’s great, but her Amazon bodyguards are busy tracking her down and scaring everyone she meets! Then, in “Sabotage Is in the Stars,” Wonder Woman aids India’s space program, making it safe for them to launch their new SpaceCrops platform. But when Diana discovers that LexCorp caused the problem, she takes matters into her own hands!

It never occurred to me that I could get a pre-52 Martian Manhunter out of this title. Glad I'm already buying it.

Legendary writer/artist Walter Simonson takes on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World! These tales star the heroes and villains of the Fourth World as Darkseid seeks the Anti-Life Equation and Orion battles to stop him! Collects ORION #1-25 and stories from JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD #9-11 and 13!

I've had the one issue of this series J'Onn and the JLA appeared in unread and unbagged in a box for over a decade. Read the first few issues. They were a'ight, but $75?

The sequel to the video game SCRIBBLENAUTS UNMASKED arrives in this title collecting SCRIBBLENAUTS UNMASKED: A CRISIS OF IMAGINATION chapters #1-9, plus a digital short never before available in print! Following the events of Scribblenauts Unmasked, Madame Xanadu and Phantom Stranger enlist the help of Maxwell and Lily to save the DC Universe as we know it.

I didn't bother listing the individual issues, but I'm sure J'Onn J'Onzz is in there somewhere, right? Right? Actually, he wasn't listed on any of the breakdowns at Comic Vine, so maybe not...

Superman has defeated the Monitors, but what can he possibly do to
keep the Universe safe from them in the future? The people of Earth pick up their lives as best they can, and our heroes make some hard decisions about their own futures. As Season Eleven ends, new lives begin.

I also bought the trade paperback where Smallville Wonder Woman debuted, and haven't read that, either. This one's got M'gann, J'Onn, and Diana, so I guess I'll get that trade, too.